The coastline of Venezuela is about 2800 km (about 1700 mi) long and has numerous indentations, of which the gulfs of Venezuela and Paria are notable. Except in the west, which has expanses of low and occasionally marshy land, the coast is generally narrow and steep. Of the 72 islands off the coast that belong to Venezuela, Margarita is the largest and most important. The total area of Venezuela is 912,050 sq km (352,144 sq mi). The capital and largest city is Caracas.
Land
Venezuela has four distinct geographic regions. In the northwest and north are the Venezuelan highlands, which include the country's highest point, Pico Bolívar (5007 m/16,427 ft). The Maracaibo lowlands, containing Lake Maracaibo, an inland extension of the Gulf of Venezuela, are near the northwestern coast. The Llanos, a region of tropical grassland, are in the north central region, and the Guiana Highlands, which reach elevations of more than 2700 m (about 9000 ft) above sea level, are in the southeast and south. The mountains of the Guiana Highlands extend from the delta of the Orinoco River into Brazil and Guyana, and are varied by open areas and forest. The chief ranges are the Sierra Parima and Sierra Pacaraima, which form part of the boundary with Brazil. Angel Falls, one of the world's highest waterfalls, is in the eastern part of the highlands.
Venezuela has six navigable rivers. Of the thousand or more streams in the country, the majority are affluents of the Orinoco, which, with the Apure, Meta, and Negro tributaries, forms the outlet into the Atlantic Ocean for the interior of Colombia, as well as Venezuela. The Orinoco extends east across central Venezuela and drains approximately four-fifths of the total area of the country.
Climate (Return to top of page)
The climate of Venezuela is tropical on the Llanos and along the coast, and temperate in the mountainous regions. The average daily temperature range in January in Caracas is 13° to 24° C (56° to 75° F) and 23° to 32° C (73° to 90° F) in Maracaibo; in July the range is 16° to 26° C (61° to 78° F) in Caracas and 24° to 34° C (76° to 94° F) in Maracaibo. Most precipitation falls from May through November, with the northern mountain slopes receiving less rain than those on the south.
Natural Resources
Venezuela is rich in mineral resources, notably petroleum, natural gas, bauxite, gold, iron ore, copper, zinc, lead, and diamonds. Forests, too, are an important resource.
Plants and Animals
Forests of varied species including palms, coral, mangoes, and brazilwood nearly 40 percent of Venezuela. Plant life common to the Temperate Zone (the region north of the Tropic of Cancer) thrives above about 900 m (about 3000 ft). Long grass grows on the Llanos, and mangrove swamps cover much of the Orinoco River delta.
Among the animals of Venezuela are jaguars, monkeys, sloths, anteaters, ocelots, bears, deer, and armadillos. Birdlife is abundant and includes flamingos, herons, ibis, guacharos (also called oilbirds), and numerous other species. Reptiles, including crocodiles and such large snakes as anacondas and boa constrictors, are also found in Venezuela.
Population (Return to top of page)
About 67 percent of the population of Venezuela is made up of mestizos (people of mixed European and Native American ancestry), and some 21 percent is of white descent. The remainder is predominantly black, and about 2 percent of the total population is unmixed Native American. The society is 93 percent urban. Spanish is the official language of the country. The principal religion is Roman Catholicism.
Population Characteristics
The Venezuelan population (1995 estimate) is about 21,483,000, giving the country an overall population density of about 24 persons per sq km (61 per sq mi). About 80 percent of the population lives in the northern highlands or coastal regions. Only about 5 percent inhabits the huge area (nearly 50 percent of the total land area) south of the Orinoco River. Native Americans living in the jungles were estimated to number about 53,500 in 1981.
Political Divisions
Venezuela is divided into 22 states; the federal dependencies, which comprise 72 islands in the Caribbean; and the Distrito Federal (Federal District), site of Caracas, the national capital.
Principal Cities (Return to top of page)
Caracas (population, 1992 estimate, 1,964,846) is the capital as well as the financial and commercial center of Venezuela; the nearby town of La Guaira serves as the seaport for the city. Maracaibo (1991, 1,207,513), the country's second largest city, is located on the shores of Lake Maracaibo, and is a major center of the petroleum industry. Valencia (1992 estimate, 1,034,033) is one of the country's main manufacturing centers. Barquisimeto (692,599) is the hub of several important highways as well as a major railroad terminal.
Education
Education in Venezuela is free and compulsory for children for ten years between the ages of 5 and 15. The adult literacy rate in the early 1990s was more than 88 percent. The country's 23,700 primary and preprimary schools had a total annual enrollment of some 4.9 million pupils and were staffed by more than 211,100 teachers; some 1500 secondary schools had an enrollment of more than 289,400 students.
About 350,000 students were enrolled in institutions of higher education, which included the Central University of Venezuela (1721) and Andrés Bello Catholic University (1953), in Caracas; the University of the Andes (1785), in Mérida; the University of Zulia (1891), in Maracaibo; and the Polytechnical Institute (1962), in Barquisimeto.
Culture
The dominant influence on the culture of Venezuela was that of the Spanish conquerors. The Native Americans of the country, lacking any political or cultural unity of their own, were assimilated by the immigrant groups and had only a slight influence on the national culture.
The distinct Venezuelan contribution to folk legend is the llanero, or South American cowboy. The national dance, the bropo, and such popular instruments as the maraco, a small harp, and the cuarto, a small guitar, are all associated with the llanero.
Venezuela, which was regarded as one of the less profitable colonies of Spain, lacks the splendors of Spanish architecture that are found in other South American countries. Nevertheless, in the second half of the 20th century, the combination of the wealth produced from oil discoveries and strong ties with the United States has helped foster the development of modern architecture. Caracas is now considered one of the most modern cities in the world.
Museums
Some of Venezuela's leading museums are located in Caracas. These include the Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Colonial Art, the Natural Sciences Museum, and the Bolívar Museum, with displays on the life and times of Simón Bolívar. Also of interest are the Talavera Museum, in Ciudad Bolívar, and history museums in Maracaibo and Trujillo.
Economy (Return to top of page)
The economy of Venezuela is built upon the nation's rich petroleum and mineral resources. While resource extraction has assisted in developing an industrial economy, the nation is vulnerable to fluctuations in world markets. High petroleum prices in the 1980s gave the country the highest annual per capita income in South America, but in the early 1990s a weak global oil market, coupled with political instability and a crisis in the banking system, produced a series of economic shocks for the country. Gross domestic product (GDP), after rising throughout the 1980s, began to fall, and the inflation rate rose to 65 percent. The government responded by reducing spending, improving tax collections, and accelerating privatization of state-owned firms, all intended to reduce inflation and the national deficit. The annual national budget in the early 1990s included revenues of about $9.8 billion and expenditures of about $11.9 billion.
Agriculture
The Venezuelan government passed the Agrarian Reform Law in 1960, which is aimed at expanding and diversifying agricultural production. In the early 1990s, farming employed about 10 percent of the workforce and contributed 5 percent of the annual GDP. The principal crops include sugarcane (6.7 million metric tons in 1992), bananas (1.2 million), maize (904,000), rice (595,000), sorghum (528,000), plantains (510,000), oranges (440,000), cassava (382,000), and coffee (72,000). Livestock raising is carried on chiefly on the Llanos and east of Lake Maracaibo. In the early 1990s the livestock population numbered some 14.2 million head of cattle, 1.7 million hogs, 1.5 million goats, 525,000 sheep, and 57 million poultry.
Forestry and Fishing
Although forests cover much of Venezuela, the lumbering industry is underdeveloped largely because of the inaccessibility of the forest areas. Timber is used mainly as fuel and by the building, furniture-manufacturing, and paper industries. In the early 1990s about 1.3 million cu m (about 45.6 million cu ft) of timber were produced each year.
The rich fishery resources of Venezuela include a wide variety of marine life. The most important commercial catch is shrimp, followed by tuna and sardines. Important pearl fisheries are located off Margarita Island. The yearly fish catch in the early 1990s was 352,800 metric tons.
Mining
Petroleum, located in the Lake Maracaibo Basin and in the eastern part of the country, dominates the Venezuelan economy. Crude and refined oil are the main source of government revenue and account for about one-quarter of GDP. Venezuela was the seventh largest producer of crude oil in the world in the early 1990s, when it produced about 863 million barrels annually. Much of its oil is exported to the Netherlands Antilles for refining. Venezuela is a founding member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The Venezuelan government nationalized the petroleum industry in 1976, although private investment and foreign participation has been permitted since 1992. The country has petroleum reserves estimated at 78 billion barrels, including those in an oil field discovered in 1989, which increased known reserves by at least one-third. The country also is a major producer of natural gas; output in the early 1990s was about 17.7 billion cu m (625 billion cu ft). Venezuela has tapped its vast reserves of bitumen to produce liquid coal, an emulsion of bitumen and water principally for use in power plants.
Other commercially exploited minerals include bauxite, diamonds, gold, silver, platinum, coal, salt, copper, tin, asbestos, phosphates, titanium, and mica. Iron ore, in extensive deposits, was discovered near the Orinoco River in the 1940s. In the early 1990s about 18.9 million metric tons of iron ore annually were mined, most of which was exported. Margarita Island, off the northern coast, has substantial magnesite reserves.
Manufacturing
Since the early 1960s the government of Venezuela has given high priority to the development of the manufacturing sector of the economy. Founded in 1961 in an area rich in natural resources, Ciudad Guayana is now a major center for industrial development. The leading manufactures of Venezuela include refined petroleum and petroleum products, steel, aluminum, fertilizer, cement, tires, motor vehicles, processed food, beverages, clothing, and wood items.
Energy
Much of Venezuela's electricity is produced in hydroelectric facilities, particularly at the Guri Dam, a major installation on the Caroní River. About 58.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity was generated annually in Venezuela in the early 1990s from an installed capacity of 21 million kilowatts.
Currency and Banking
The basic unit of currency is the bolivar, consisting of 100 centimos (570 bolivars equal U.S.$1; 1999). The Banco Central de Venezuela, founded in 1940, is the government banking agent, the sole bank of issue, and the clearinghouse for commercial banks. The country's principal stock exchange is in Caracas.
In 1994 the government assumed control of 13 banks, including some of the largest institutions in the country, in a banking crisis precipitated by the collapse of Banco Latino, Venezuela's second largest bank. The bank, which had enjoyed loose government supervision, failed due to poor credit decisions and possible corruption. This failure spurred a loss of confidence in other domestic banks, and government attempts to rescue the national banking system cost an estimated one-half of the annual budget.
Foreign Trade
The principal exports of Venezuela are petroleum and petroleum products, which together account for about 77 percent of foreign sales. Other exports include bauxite and aluminum, steel, chemicals, agricultural products, and basic manufactures. Total annual exports were worth about $14.2 billion in the early 1990. Main imports include raw materials, machinery, transportation equipment, chemicals, foodstuffs, and basic manufactures. Imports cost about $11 billion in the early 1990s. Principal trading partners for exports are the United States, Japan, the Netherlands (primarily petroleum to the Netherlands Antilles for refining), and Italy. Chief sources of imports are the United States (which represents 50 percent of the total sales), Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, and Canada. Venezuela is a member of four international trade organizations, the Andean Group, Latin American Integration Association (LAIA), Group of Three, and the Association of Caribbean States (ACS). These organizations work towards improving conditions within member countries by increasing economic integration and international trade.
Transportation
In the early 1990s Venezuela had some 93,500 km (some 58,100 mi) of roads, of which about 32 percent were paved. Highway density was greatest in the north central area, with an extensive highway system under construction to connect major urban centers and remote rural areas. In the early 1990s the country had only about 542 km (about 337 mi) of operated railroad track, principally a line from Puerto Cabello to Barquisimeto; the government has announced a new rail network of about 1400 km (about 900 mi) is to be constructed by the year 2000. The leading seaports of Venezuela include La Guaira, Puerto Cabello, and Maracaibo. Transport on interior waterways, particularly the Orinoco River, also is important. Venezolana Internacional de Aviación (Viasa), the country's international airline, was transferred from government to private control in 1991. In 1994 the airline was forced to shut down because of economic losses. Six other passenger airlines are based in the country, operating from seven international airports. The largest serve Caracas.
Communications
In the early 1990 Venezuela had some 1.8 million telephones. An estimated 3.2 million television sets and about 8.8 million radios were in use. Influential daily newspapers included Ultimas Noticias, El Mundo, and El Nacional, all published in Caracas.
Labor
In the early 1990s the employed labor force of Venezuela was estimated at some 7.4 million people. About 12 percent of the workforce was employed in agriculture, 41 percent in services, 26 percent in manufacturing and industry, and 21 percent in commerce. Organized labor in Venezuela consists of trade unions and peasant leagues. The largest and most powerful organization is the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers, with a membership of about 1.5 million.
Government (Return to top of page)
Venezuela is a federal republic governed under a constitution adopted in 1961.
Executive
The chief executive of Venezuela is a president, who is popularly elected to a five-year term and may not serve two consecutive terms. A council of ministers assists the president.
Legislature
Venezuela's legislature is the National Congress, made up of a Senate and Chamber of Deputies. The Senate includes 49 popularly elected members as well as living former presidents of the country (three in the early 1990s), the Chamber of Deputies has 201 popularly elected members. All elected legislators serve five-year terms. All citizens beginning at age 18 may vote.
Political Parties
In the early 1990s, the leading political parties in Venezuela were the Democratic Action party (Accíon Democrática, AD), the Social Christian party (known as COPEI) and Radical Cause. Smaller political organizations included the National Convergence and the Movement Toward Socialism.
Local Government
Each of Venezuela's 22 states and its federal district has a governor appointed by the country's president, and a popularly elected legislature.
Judiciary
The highest tribunal in Venezuela is the Supreme Court of Justice, made up of 15 judges elected to nine-year terms by the National Congress. Each of the country's states has a superior court as well as several lesser tribunals.
Defense
All Venezuelan males between the ages of 19 and 45 are liable for 30 months of military service. In the early 1990s Venezuela maintained an army of 34,000 people, a navy of 11,000, an air force of 7000, and a national guard of 23,000.
Health and Welfare
The Venezuelan government sponsors a limited program of health, accident, and retirement insurance. The average life expectancy at birth in the mid-1990s was 74 years for women and 67 for men.
History (Return to top of page)
The coast of Venezuela was first sighted by Christopher Columbus in 1498, and settlement in the country was begun by the Spanish in 1520; the first important settlement was that of Caracas in 1567. Until the Viceroyalty of New Granada was established in 1717, what is now Venezuelan territory was divided between the Viceroyalty of Peru and the Audiencia of Santo Domingo. The Superintendency of Venezuela, more or less the present territory, was created in 1783.
In 1728 the Spanish government chartered the Guipuzcoana Company and gave it a monopoly of trade in Venezuela, with the additional duties of patrolling the coast to prevent smuggling. The company was very unpopular and did much to stir up political discontent in the colony.
Independence
The history of the war of independence against Spain in Venezuela is largely the record of the careers of Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Miranda. The revolution began in 1810 and independence was formally proclaimed on July 5, 1811. In 1819 the republic of Gran Colombia was established, with its capital in Bogota. Gran Colombia included what are now Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, and Panama. Independence was assured with the decisive victory of Bolívar over the Spanish royalist army in 1821. Venezuela constituted itself an independent republic in 1829.
Series of Dictatorships
The early history of independent Venezuela was characterized by revolutions and counterrevolutions, climaxed by the rigid dictatorship of Antonio Guzmán Blanco from 1870 to 1888. On two separate occasions, the foreign affairs of Venezuela closely involved the United States. The first was in 1886, when a border dispute arose between Venezuela and British Guiana (now Guyana). The United States persuaded Great Britain to submit the case to an arbitration tribunal that subsequently awarded the larger share of the territory to Great Britain. During the rule of Cipriano Castro, from 1899 to 1908, the United States again intervened in a dispute involving Venezuela. In 1902 Great Britain, France, Germany, and several other powers blockaded Venezuelan ports because of the government's failure to meet its debts. On two occasions, European warships bombarded the ports. On February 13, 1903, negotiations, which had been taking place in Washington, D.C., were concluded with a formal request to The Hague Tribunal for a decision. The tribunal decided in favor of the allies in 1904, and by July 1907 Venezuela had met the obligations to the three powers. The following year Castro was deposed by General Juan Vicente Gómez. He reversed Castro's foreign policies, which had involved Venezuela in still other difficulties with the European powers and with the United States; internally, he ruled tyrannically from 1908 until his death in 1935, with two interruptions, from 1915 to 1922, and from 1929 to 1931. Oil was discovered in Venezuela in 1917 and quickly became important to the country's economy.
World War II and Postwar Politics
Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations with the Axis Powers at the end of 1941, but did not declare war on them until February 1945 in order to qualify as a charter member of the United Nations. In 1945, following the overthrow of the dictatorship of General Isaías Medina Angarita, Dr. Rómulo Betancourt, of the moderately socialist AD party, assumed control of the government as provisional president. A new constitution, promulgated in 1947, provided for popular vote by means of a secret ballot. Later in the same year, after the first democratic election in Venezuela, Rómulo Gallegos Freire, novelist and founder of the AD, was elected president. He took office in February 1948. In November the government was overthrown by an army revolt, the leaders of which immediately formed a provisional government headed by Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Delgado Chalbaud.
The junta suppressed the opposition and employed other dictatorial methods, including censorship of news. On November 13, 1950, Delgado Chalbaud was assassinated. The junta appointed the diplomat Germán Suárez Flámerich as provisional president. Suárez promised that national elections for a constituent assembly would be held in the near future. In the elections, held on November 30, 1952, the junta-backed government party, the Independent Electoral Front (FEI), was declared the winner. Colonel Marcos Pérez Jiménez, the government candidate, then became president; leaders of the opposition had to leave the country.
The Pérez Jiménez Regime
On April 11, 1953, after three months of deliberation, the constituent assembly gave final approval to a new constitution, which was formally promulgated on April 15. The country, known officially since 1864 as the United States of Venezuela, was proclaimed the Republic of Venezuela.
The government maintained generally good contacts with other American countries, and the Tenth International Conference of American States was held in Caracas in March 1954. Venezuela, however, broke off diplomatic relations with Argentina in July 1957, after having rejected numerous Argentine complaints concerning the activities in Caracas of the former Argentine dictator Juan Perón. In December the government held a plebiscite, the results of which showed that 2,353,935 of a total of 2,900,543 voters approved of Pérez Jiménez and his regime. Several weeks after the plebiscite, a rebellion led by air force officers was suppressed by army troops.
On January 21, 1958, a general strike in Caracas signaled the start of a popular uprising. Pérez Jiménez fled the country on January 23, and the same day a group of military officers and civilians, known as the Patriotic Junta and led by Rear Admiral Wolfgang Larrazábal, seized control of the government.
Democratic Governments
The Larrazábal government thwarted attempted coups d'état on July 22 and September 7. The rebels were said to have been motivated by the belief that Larrazábal had allowed the Communist movement to function too freely. In the December elections, former President Betancourt of the AD was reelected. On June 24, 1959, Betancourt was injured in an assassination attempt, which the Organization of American States said had been instigated by the government of the Dominican Republic. Antigovernment rioting by Larrazábal supporters occurred in Caracas in November and December.
President Betancourt promulgated a new constitution on January 23, 1961. Despite constitutional provisions guaranteeing various rights to labor and expressing opposition to large landed estates, social unrest and rioting continued throughout 1961. Diplomatic relations with Cuba were severed on November 11, following charges by the Venezuelan government that Cuba had in large part fomented the disorders. During 1962 and 1963 leftist groups attempted unsuccessfully to overthrow the government.
On December 1, 1963, Raúl Leoni of the ruling AD was elected president. Lacking a congressional majority, Leoni formed a coalition government. For the next few years Venezuela enjoyed a large measure of political stability. In October 1966, however, a military uprising broke out, led by the national guard garrison near Caracas. It was crushed by the government, which had also been combating guerrilla activity in the countryside and the capital throughout the year.
Nationalization Measures
Toward the end of the decade, the political life of the nation gained some tranquillity. In December 1968, Rafael Caldera Rodríguez, leader of COPEI, won a narrow election victory over Leoni. Caldera was inaugurated in March 1969; it was the first time in the 140-year history of Venezuela that the ruling party had peacefully handed over power to the opposition. Despite his narrow support, Caldera governed effectively and virtually eliminated the guerrilla and terrorist activities of the late 1960s. Economically, he pursued a policy of nationalizing foreign enterprises. In 1973 Venezuela joined the increasingly effective Andean Group.
Political activity was brisk in 1973 as the presidential elections neared. In May the congress ratified a constitutional amendment barring the candidacy of former President Pérez Jiménez. In the December elections, the winner was Carlos Andrés Pérez, the leader of the AD. He attempted to improve relations with Venezuela's neighbors but took an increasingly independent line from the United States. He expressed open hostility to the military dictatorship in Chile and resumed diplomatic relations with Cuba. Pérez nationalized the iron and steel industry in 1975 and the oil industry in 1976.
The 1978 elections were won by COPEI and its presidential candidate, Luís Herrera Campíns. During his term, Campíns sought to cool down the economy as the market for oil exports weakened. The elections of December 1983 resulted in a sweeping victory for the AD, and its candidate, Jaime Lusinchi took office as president. The AD also won the 1988 elections, resulting in a second presidency for Carlos Andrés Pérez. In February 1989, consumer-price increases imposed as part of an austerity program triggered violent protests in Caracas. Emergency loans from the United States and other countries helped ease the crisis, as did increased revenue from oil exports. However, continued popular discontent with government policies, including attempts at privatization, led to defeats in local elections. In 1991, Venezuela and the other members of the Andean Group signed a treaty that would establish the Andean Common Market.
In 1992 two military coup attempts were crushed, one in February and another in November. Pérez was suspended from office in May 1993, after the Senate voted unanimously to have him stand trial on charges of embezzlement and misuse of public funds. Senator Ramón José Velásquez was elected interim president, pending elections in 1993. In December 1993, Rafael Caldera was again elected president. More recently, former coup leader, Hugo Chávaz Frias, was elected president overwhelmingly by popular vote. Chávez took office promising major economic and political reforms on February 2, 1999.
In January 1994 the nation's second largest bank, Banco Latino, collapsed, precipitating an economic crisis. The crisis affected several other banks, prompting a strong response from the central government. By August, 13 banks had been nationalized, including several of the largest in Venezuela. Citing immediate necessity and coup rumors, President Caldera announced the suspension of some civil and economic rights in order to help the government arrest those responsible for the banking collapse and to prevent speculation and inflation. In September Caldera announced a new economic plan, designed to pull the country out of its economic slump. The plan called for reducing inflation and the deficit, an increase in foreign investment and foreign currency holdings, a reduction in the dependence on oil tax revenues, improvements in tax collection, and a rise in the domestic price of oil. Public unrest over the government's handling of the crisis continued periodically throughout the year as demonstrators protested the rise in oil prices and public services.
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